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Home , Bill Duke, Boyz n the Hood, Dark Star (soundtrack), Earl Cameron, Kevin Brownlow, Scream queen

FURTHER ONSTAGE APPEARANCES INCLUDE: Nollywood star Nse Ikpe-Etim, legendary 99 year old Earl Cameron, Clarke Peters (The Wire), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Luther, Shoot the Messenger), Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines () and directors (Boyz n the Hood) and Park Chan-wook (Oldboy)

Friday 16 September 2016, London. This October at BFI Southbank sees the start of the BLACK STAR, the BFI’s landmark season championing the achievements of black stars from the earliest years of cinema through to the present day. The season at BFI Southbank, programmed by Ashley Clark, runs from 17 October – 31 December and includes major film and TV previews, special events, introductions and Q&As from British and international talent including Idris Elba, director John Singleton and Nollywood star Nse Ikpe-Etim, as well as talks and discussions with experts from across the industry and film academia.

Also taking place from late October and throughout November is a season dedicated to legendary director , mastermind behind such hits as (1978), The Thing (1982) and Escape from (1981. Showcasing his best-loved works, The Cult of John Carpenter celebrates a master craftsman who’s been turning often-dismissed fare into cinematic gold for over 40 years and whose influence is undeniable – from Reservoir Dogs to Stranger Things. Completing the season line-up for the month is French Noir; featuring work by , Jean- Pierre Melville and Henri Georges Clouzot, French Noir will look at the twilit world of troubled loners and weary detectives, tales of amour fou and murder, and cafes and nightclubs wreathed in the thick smoke of Gauloises cigarettes.

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This month’s packed events programme includes the return of the annual BFI / BAFTA Screenwriter Lecture Series, with an appearance by critically acclaimed writer and director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Stoker, The Handmaiden), a preview of the new animated version of long-lost Doctor Who story The Power of the Daleks, a Jim Jarmusch double-bill previewing Paterson (2016) and Gimme Danger (2016), and fresh from its gala screening at the BFI London Film Festival, a preview of Ben Younger’s Bleed for This (2016) starring Miles Teller. To mark the BFI theatrical release of ’s five and a half hour epic Napoleon (1927) there will be a special talk looking at The Restoration of Napoleon with film historian Kevin Brownlow and film restorer and historian on stage to share an account of the somewhat troubled past of this monumental film. BFI Southbank will mark the 80th anniversary of the first official broadcast on British television with a preview of documentary Television’s Opening Night: How the Box was Born (BBC-Windfall Films, 2016) as well as the 35th anniversary of Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 1981), the underrated cult follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman 1975), which will be marked with a day of screenings and events with cast and crew.

BLACK STAR  SUN 23 OCT, 13:30: SPECIAL EVENT: Earl Cameron CBE in Conversation + Pool of London (Basil Deardon, 1951) / Onstage: actor Earl Cameron CBE  TUE 25 OCT, 18:30 – TV PREVIEW: NW (BBC, 2016) / Onstage: director Saul Dibb, Nikki Amuka-Bird, OT Fagbenle and Pheobe Fox, director Saul Dibb, screenwriter Rachel Bennette  WED 26 OCT, 20:30 – WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA PREVIEW AND DISCUSSION, IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BIRDS EYE VIEW: The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015)  FRI 28 OCT, 18:15 – SPECIAL EVENT: Boyz n the Hood (1991) / Onstage: director John Singleton  THU 3 NOV, 18:15 – TV PREVIEW: Black is the New Black (BBC, 2016) / Onstage: director Simon Frederick  FRI 4 NOV, 18:10 – TV PREVIEW: A Black History of Britain (BBC, 2016) / Onstage: writer and presenter and director James Van der pool  FRI 4 NOV – SUN 6 NOV: SET IT OFF: THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP STARDOM – BFI Sonic Cinema presents a special Hip Hop weekender  TUE 8 NOV, 18:15 – FILM PREVIEW: 100 Streets (Jim O’Hanlon, 2016) / Onstage: Actor and producer Idris Elba and director Jim O’Hanlon  WED 9 NOV, 20:45 – BFI MEMBER EXCLUSIVE: Clarke Peters introduces Stormy Weather (Andrew Stone, 1943) / Onstage: actor Clarke Peters  SAT 12 NOV, 13:00-17:00: SPECIAL EVENT: The Life and Times of / Onstage: the High Commissioner of Guyana, Professor Kurt Barling, producer Terry Jervis and theatre director Yvonne Brewster OBE  TUE 15 NOV, 18:00 – 10TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING: Shoot the Messenger (BBC 2006) / Onstage: actors Nikki Amuka Bird and Charles Mnene, producer Anne Pivcevic, vice chair of the Mental Health Taskforce Jacqui Dyer, chaired by Patrick Vernon OBE  FRI 18 NOV – SUN 20 NOV: AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENT: BEYOND NOLLYWOOD – a weekend of screenings and events celebrating the Nigerian filmmakers revolutionising the industry, with special guest actor Nse Ikpe-Etim

BLACK STAR champions the achievements of black stars from the earliest years of cinema through to the present day, whilst exploring why opportunities to shine on screen have been historically limited for black actors. Alongside iconic work from much-loved contemporary greats like Denzel Washington, and David Oyelowo, BLACK STAR will spotlight contributions from crucial figures who must not be forgotten like the late . The landmark film season at BFI Southbank, programmed by Ashley Clark and running from 17 October – 31 December, is

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themed to enable audiences to easily explore different areas of black stardom, from the rich history of ‘transatlantic stardom’ and the early years of Hollywood, to Baadasssss rebels and close up focuses on key black stars including , Josephine Baker, The Nicholas Brothers, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Bellafonte. Highlights of the October/November programme are:

BLACK STAR FILM AND TV PREVIEWS: Jim O’Hanlon’s A Hundred Streets (2016) stars Idris Elba as an ex-England Rugby captain who is failing to hold his life together; actor and producer Idris Elba will attend the UK Premiere on Tuesday 8 November alongside director Jim O’Hanlon. Also screening, in partnership with Birds Eye View, is The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015) which follows 11-year-old Toni, an African-American tomboy from Cincinnati who starts boxing with her big brother but switches to join the tight-knit dance team across the hall. TV previews will include NW (BBC, 2016) an adaptation of Zadie Smith’s universally acclaimed novel starring Nikki Amuka-Bird, Phoebe Fox and OT Fagbenle, all of whom will attend for a Q&A alongside director Saul Dibb and screenwriter Rachel Bennette; Black is the New Black (BBC, 2016), a new documentary series by director Simon Frederick (who will take part in Q&A after the screening of episodes 1 and 2) featuring some of the most influential figures in black British culture; and A Black History of Britain (BBC, 2016), written and presented by acclaimed historian David Olusoga, and exploring the relationship between Britain and the people of Africa and the Caribbean. Writer and presenter David Olusoga and director James Van der pool will both take part in a discussion following a screening of episode one of the series.

IMMORTAL INCARNATIONS includes films in which black stars take on iconic roles based on legendary historical figures. Examples include Denzel Washington as the eponymous Malcolm X (1992) in ’s Academy Award®-nominated biopic, Will Smith as the late, great Muhammad Ali in Michael Mann’s Ali (2001) and the all-star cast of Dreamgirls (Bill Condon, 2006), based on the story of Diana Ross and The Supremes and starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé Knowles and Eddie Murphy. Also screening will be Purple Rain (Albert Magnoli, 1984) in which Prince plays a thinly veiled version of himself and Ray (Taylor Hackford, 2004) led by an Oscar®-winning performance by Jamie Foxx as ‘The High Priest of Soul’ Ray Charles. Completing this section of the programme is Bessie (, 2015), the story of Jazz pioneer Bessie Smith starring Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique as Smith and Ma Rainey respectively; these are two unforgettable portrayals of bisexuality that honour the history of black sexual liberation. The screening of Bessie will be followed by All Hail the Queens! Celebrating Black Female Fandom, a special event in partnership with the Reel Good Film Club in which a panel will consider the mighty Queen Latifah, as well as the power of fandom.

TRAILBLAZERS: HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND will be a wide-ranging survey of black screen stardom, from early independent cinema to Hollywood breakthroughs and transatlantic pioneers. A highlight of this part of the programme will be a screening of Lime Kiln Club Field Day (Edwin Middleton, T Hayes Hunter, 1913), the first documented film with an all-black principal cast including legendary vaudeville performer Bert Williams. This unfinished, independently produced romantic comedy was discovered by MOMA and reassembled for a premiere in 2014 and the screening on Friday 28 October will be the first screening of the film in the UK. Also screening will be Adams (George Stevens, 1935), featuring a show-stealing performance from Hattie McDaniel, four years before she won her Oscar for Gone with the Wind, Douglas Sirk’s Oscar®-nominated melodrama Imitation of Life (1959), and the star-studded musicals Cabin in the Sky (Vincente Minnelli, 1943) and Stormy Weather (Andrew Stone, 1943) featuring one of the most jaw-dropping dance sequences in history performed by The Nicholas Brothers. The screening of Stormy Weather on Wednesday 9 November will be introduced by actor Clarke Peters (The Wire, Treme) as part of the BFI’s ongoing Screen Epiphanies series, exclusively for BFI Members.

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CLOSE UP: PAUL ROBESON – The towering Paul Robeson, who took a central role in the Civil Rights Movement, found fame in the UK, particularly in Welsh mining communities where The Proud Valley (1940) was shot on location. The Proud Valley will screen in the season from newly remastered material, while Jericho (Thornton Freeland, 1937) will screen from a pristine new 35mm print. Our close up on Robeson will also feature screenings of Song of Freedom (J. Elder Wills, 1936), Borderline (Kenneth Macpherson, 1930) and Show Boat (James Whale, 1936), the latter of which saw Robeson reprise the role he played over 500 times on stage.

A number of films starring the pioneering black screen icon Sidney Poitier will screen in October and November. CLOSE UP: SIDNEY POITIER will include a re-release of the powerful thriller In The Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967) starring Poitier and Rod Steiger as a homicide detective and a bigoted local sheriff who must work together to solve a murder investigation. The film will be re- released by Park Circus in selected cinemas across the UK on Friday 18 November. The focus on Poitier will also feature screenings of classic such as No Way Out (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), A Raisin in the Sun (Daniel Petrie, 1961) and To Sir With Love (James Clavell, 1967). For audiences wishing to delve deeper into this part of the programme, there will be a talk Black Star Stories: Groundbreakers during which pioneering stars such as Sidney Poitier will be explored.

Audiences will be able to discover the ‘Creole goddess’ who wowed audiences with her singing, dancing and acting with CLOSE UP: JOSEPHINE BAKER featuring screenings of Zouzou (Marc Allégret, 1934), a backstage musical of unrequited love in which Josephine Baker takes the title role. This will screen alongside clips from the earlier La Revue des Revues (Joe Francis, 1927). Also screening will be the Emmy award-winning biopic The Josephine Baker Story (Brian Gibson, 1990) starring Lynn Whitfield; this glossy film follows Baker from her impoverished childhood to the dizzy heights of stardom, but doesn’t neglect to show that Baker became a life-long advocate for American civil rights, worked for the French resistance, and was buried with military honours. Baker’s career will also be explored in the talk Black Star Stories: Musicians on the Big Screen, alongside the club singers, rappers and popstars who have all brought their talents to the big screen.

SET IT OFF: THE BIRTH OF HIP HOP STARDOM will be a weekend of events at BFI Southbank and cinemas around the UK from Friday 4 November – Sunday 6 November, taking us back to the thrilling days when Hip Hop stars first made bold, successful moves into acting. Screenings will include the BFI re-release, in association with Park Circus and Sony Pictures, of John Singleton’s Boyz n The Hood (1991), depicting life in South Central LA, and starring in his first screen role alongside Cuba Gooding Jr., and Angela Bassett. Writer-director John Singleton, who will take part in a post-screening Q&A on Friday 28 October, was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director, making him the youngest ever nominee for Best Director at just 24, and the first African-American to be nominated for the award. Also screening will be F. Gary Gray’s Set it Off (1996) starring the iconic quartet of Queen Latifah, Jada Pinkett, Vivica Fox and Kimberley Elise as a tightknit group of friends who decide to rob banks to overcome financial hardship. The thrilling action sequences display an unapologetically subversive black female agency, spanning vulnerability, joy and solidarity. Also directed by F Gary Gray is Friday (1995) starring Ice Cube and Chris Tucker (in his first starring role) as a pair of stoners who need to come up with $200 by the end of the day to pay back a drug dealer for smoking his weed. Other keys Hip Hop stars to make the move into cinema are Tupac Shakur, who starred in Juice (Ernest R Dickerson, 1992) and Gridlock’d (Vondie Curtis-Hall, 1997), and Ice T who stars alongside Wesley Snipes and Chris Rock in Mario Van Peebles’ intelligent critique on the rampant capitalism of the Regan era in New Jack City (1991). Completing the Hip Hop weekend will be screenings of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch, 1999) starring Forest Whitaker as a self-taught samurai hitman and House Party (Reginald Hudlin, 1990) starring Hip Hop duo Kid ‘n Play, whose adventures immortalized the style and sound of 90s Hip Hop. Also, The Doctor’s Orders, Time Out’s ‘kings of the

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capital's Hip Hop scene' will present a range of club nights, a Hip Hop pub quiz, and a special Sunday morning club event for kids and parents, called Fun DMC, to accompany a BFI Family Funday screening of Space Jam (Joe Pytka, 1996).

Running from Friday 18 November – Sunday 20 November, AFRICAN ODYSSEYS PRESENT: BEYOND NOLLYWOOD will be a special weekend of Nigerian cinema, showcasing a new crop of impressive filmmakers with screenings of arthouse, documentary, animation and experimental . Events will include the European Premiere of Green White Green: And All the Beautiful Colours in My Mosaic of Madness (Abba T Makama), and the UK Premiere of Faaji Agba (2015), which will be followed by a Q&A with director Remi Vaughan-Richards. We will also welcome Nigerian screen queen Nse Ikpe-Etim to reflect on her career and the Nollywood star system in conversation with Beyond Nollywood programmer Nadia Denton. One of Nigeria’s most sought-after actresses, Nse is known for her roles in popular Nigerian films such as Mr. And Mrs., Phone Swap and Fifty. There will also be two shorts programmes, one dedicated to fiction and one to documentary, with a number of the filmmakers in attendance.

CLOSE UP: EARL CAMERON: The multi-talented actor Earl Cameron CBE, acknowledged by many as one of the first African Caribbean screen actors to break the colour bar in the UK, will be inducted in the Screen Nation Hall of Frame at a special event, Earl Cameron CBE in conversation on Sunday 23 October. Cameron is the inaugural inductee and has had a career spanning over 70 years, starring in over 90 films and TV productions, including the seminal Ealing Studios thriller Pool of London (Basil Deardon, 1951). This focus on Earl Cameron will continue with some of his television work including the taut play Drama ‘64: A Fear of Strangers (ATV, 1964) and The Death of Bessie Smith (Granada TV, 1965) in which Cameron plays a man who brings blue singer Bessie Smith into a ‘whites-only’ hospital following a car accident.

BAADASSSSS REBELS will include a focus on the Baadasssss rebels of films such as Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (, 1971) and Shaft (Gordon Parks, 1971). There will also be a look at the enduring influence of in films such as Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) and Black Dynamite (Scott Sanders, 2009) and a focus on the ultimate Blaxploitation star Pam Grier in Foxy Brown (Jack Hill, 1974) and Jackie Brown (Quentin Tarantino, 1997).

Black stars take leading roles in films where issues of race further muddies myriad shades of grey in BLACK STAR/NEO NOIR; screenings will include Bill Duke’s sharp thriller (1992) starring Laurence Fishburne at his brooding, complex best; the hardboiled mystery Devil in a Blue Dress (Carl Franklin, 1995) starring Denzel Washington and Don Cheadle; Kathryn Bigelow’s sci-fi classic Strange Days starring Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes; and Seven (David Fincher, 1995) starring Morgan Freeman as a grizzled, soon to retire cop who is hunting a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as tropes in his murders.

With CLOSE UP: HARRY BELAFONTE AND DOROTHY DANDRIDGE we celebrate a brilliantly dynamic screen partnership; screenings will include Carmen Jones (1954), Otto Preminger’s scintillating wartime update of Bizet’s opera Carmen, and Island in the Sun (Robert Rossen, 1957), a tale of social unrest and racism in the heat of a Caribbean Island.

CLOSE UP: EARTHA KITT: Actress, singer, cabaret star, dancer, and much more, the multi-talented Eartha Kitt starred in Mrs Patterson on Broadway before the BBC adapted it for television in 1956; Kitt is captivating as Teddy, a poor black teenager who aspires to live the life of her mother’s white employer. Mrs Patterson (BBC, 1956) will play alongside Variety in Sepia (BBC, 1947), a precious,

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experimental telerecording of a few minutes from a landmark BBC variety show celebrating black talent.

CLOSE UP: CHIWETEL EJIOFOR: Chiwetel Ejiofor found fame in the US with the powerful role of Solomon Northup in the Oscar®-winning 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013), but it was ’ Dirty Pretty Things (2002) which first helped him find fame in the UK. He is compelling as a Nigerian taxi driver and nighttime hotel attendant who becomes entangled in London’s sinister black market and murky underworld of undocumented immigrants.

CLOSE UP: DAVID OYELOWO: Before David Oyelowo hit the big time with his magnetic performance as Dr Martin Luther King in Ava DuVernay’s Selma (2014), he led an excellent black cast in the provocative BBC drama Shoot the Messenger (BBC, 2006). As well as screenings of Selma, the season will include a very special 10th anniversary screening of Shoot the Messenger with a Q&A with some of the cast and crew including actors Nikki Amuka-Bird and Charles Mnene.

REGULAR BFI STRANDS will also be represented in BLACK STAR. BFI FLARE screenings in November will include Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967) and Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingstone, 1991), while BFI FAMILIES screenings will include The Wiz (, 1978) and Annie (Will Gluck, 2014). BFI Southbank’s regular CULT STRAND will also take on the theme of black star heroes and heroines with screenings of experimental horror Ganja and Hess (Bill Gunn, 1973) and comic book favourite Blade (Stephen Norrington, 1998). There will be a free SENIOR’S MATINEE of the triumphant and heartbreaking documentary 20 Feet from Stardom (Morgan Neville, 2013) while the SONIC CINEMA strand will focus on The Homelands, a project which celebrates the influence of heritage upon four contemporary, UK-based black musicians. BFI AFRICAN ODYSSEYS will celebrate Guyanese-born actor Cy Grant with The Life and Times of Cy Grant, a special event on Saturday 12 November; the event will feature poetry, live music, presentations and film clips from Grant’s life and work and also commemorates the 50th anniversary of Guyana’s independence. The EXPERIMENTA strand will be dedicated to Barbara O Jones, a truly iconic screen presence who emerged from the ‘LA Rebellion’ movement which was forged at UCLA in the fraught aftermath of the Watts riots of 1965 amid a climate of black liberation and anti-Vietnam struggles. BFI Southbank’s initiative dedicated to 16 to year olds FUTURE FILM will also be dedicated to BLACK STAR, with a special event on Saturday 19 November during which attendees will be able to gain insight from young black talent making waves in the industry.

The BFI will also be presenting a major conference in partnership with King’s College London. On Blackness, Cinema and the Moving Image: A KCL Symposium, will bring together world-leading scholars to share insights into black stardom. Through illuminating presentations these thinkers will consider the historical evolution of ‘blackness’ in visual culture and explore the aesthetics and politics of black stardom. It will also examine black stars’ strategies of resistance, from the earliest activists through to today’s most vocal proponents of diversity against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement.

BLACK STAR will be available to audiences everywhere in the UK; in cinemas including BFI Southbank, on BBC Television, on DVD/Blu-ray and online via BFI Player from 17 October – 31 December, with further projects planned to celebrate the contribution of black practitioners working across film and TV in the coming years.

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THE CULT OF JOHN CARPENTER  MON 17 OCT, 20:45 – SCREENING + INTRO: Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) / Onstage introduction by critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode

Running from October 17 – November 28, The Cult of John Carpenter will celebrate a master craftsman who’s been turning often-dismissed genre fare into cinematic gold for over 40 years and whose influence is undeniable – from Reservoir Dogs to Stranger Things. The season will showcase twelve of his best-loved works, many of which boast Carpenter’s trademark synth soundtracks, including Dark Star (1974), Halloween (1978), The Thing (1982) and Big Trouble in Little China (1986).

Co-written with future Alien scribe Dan O’Bannon while at film school, Carpenter’s low-budget debut feature Dark Star (1974) follows the bumbling hi-jinks of a small intergalactic crew on a mission to rid the universe of rogue planets. The screening on Tuesday 18 October will be preceded by an extended introduction by season programmer Michael Blyth. Carpenter channelled his hero for Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a down-and-dirty homage to Rio Bravo in which a disparate gang of cops and criminals unexpectedly join forces to protect a near-deserted LA precinct office from an insurgent street gang. A masterclass in sustained suspense, this wildly creative exercise in economy showcased Carpenter’s extraordinary ability to achieve so much with so little. With these two modest critical hits under his belt, Carpenter was approached by a pair of enterprising movie producers out to make a low budget horror. He transformed what could have been a throwaway drive-in fright flick into Halloween (1978), one of horror cinema’s most iconic masterpieces, and one of the highest-grossing indie films of all time. The screening of Halloween on Monday 17 October will be introduced by critic and broadcaster Mark Kermode. Following Halloween, Carpenter reunited with its star for the slow-burn maritime shocker (1980) in which she stars alongside Adrienne Barbeau and Curtis’ mother, the original -queen, .

The season will include three of the five films which Carpenter made with Kurt Russell, beginning with (1981), the dystopian sci-fi film set in the (then) future of 1997. Russell plays the memorable anti-hero Snake Plissken, an ex-soldier hired to rescue the President from Manhattan Island, now a maximum security prison. The Thing (1982) was an update of Howard Hawks’ sci-fi classic The Thing From Another World and follows a group of research scientists who fall victim to a shape-shifting alien entity. Unfathomably dismissed as puerile trash upon release, Carpenter’s icy shocker is now rightfully recognised as a masterpiece of the genre. The final collaboration with Russell screening in the season is Big Trouble in Little China (1986), a one-of-a- kind cult classic which despite being a box-office flop has subsequently found an appreciative audience on home video and now remains a firm fan favourite.

Also screening will be (1983) in which Carpenter’s trademark cool aesthetic proves the perfect complement to Stephen King’s tale of a bookish teen who develops an unhealthy obsession with his car. Having cemented his reputation as a master of horror, Carpenter confounded expectations with Starman (1984), a fantastical Spielbergian melodrama about an alien who befriends a human as he races to make his way back home. Increasingly frustrated with studio interference, Carpenter made Prince of Darkness (1987), his first independent production since Escape from New York; the result is pure, undiluted Carpenter – defiantly offbeat and bracingly singular in mood and pace. Completing the season will be screenings of (1988) set in a soulless LA in which humans are being subliminally manipulated by mind-controlling aliens and (1994), a boldly imaginative, blackly comic homage to HP Lovecraft.

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FRENCH NOIR  THU 20 OCT, 18:15 – TALK: Introducing the Dark Masterpieces of French Noir  MON 22 NOV, 20:00 – DISCUSSION: Ethics and Existentialism in ‘Le Corbeau’ and French Film Noir / Onstage: film academics Lucy Bolton, William Brown, Catherine Wheatley

French Noir is the latest in the BFI’s series of ‘Deep Focus’ seasons, programmed in partnership with Sight & Sound magazine, and will delve into films from the shadowy world of film noir that possess a distinctly French sensibility. Running from 17 October – 30 November 2016, French Noir will include work by directors such as Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville and Henri Georges Clouzot, and will look at the twilit world of troubled loners and weary detectives, tales of amour fou and murder, and cafes and nightclubs wreathed in the thick smoke of Gauloises cigarettes. The official histories will tell you that film noir first emerged from the darkness in 1940s Hollywood, when emigré directors brought shadows of German Expressionism to hard-boiled stories by writers like Raymond Chandler, but characteristics of ‘noir’ have in fact been present in French cinema since the 1930s. Introducing the Dark Masterpieces of French Noir will be an illustrated talk by Ginette Vincendeau (King’s College London) in which she will examine the dark, stylishly told tales in 1950s French cinema, films which counter any sense that noir is an exclusively American genre.

Films being screened during the season will include two directed by Jean Renoir: La Nuit du Carrefour (1932) and La Bête humaine (1938). In La Nuit du Carrefour, Inspector Maigret (Renoir) is despatched to investigate murder in a small town, but he finds suspects at every gloomy turn, not least the prototypical femme fatale Else (Winna Winfried). Meanwhile, with La Bête humaine Renoir took Émile Zola’s naturalistic novel and crafted a gritty, noir about murderous desire. The original French gangster noir, Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937) is an intoxicating fusion of poetic realism, woozy exoticism and crime thriller starring Jean Gabin as a charming gangster. Jean Gabin also stars in Marcel Carné’s stirring classic Le Jour se lève (1939), an archetypal French gangster flick Touchez pas au grisbi (Jacques Becker, 1954) and Voici le temps des assassins (Julien Duvivier, 1956) a film ripe for discovery, which boasts a trio of wickedly venomous female performances.

Une si jolie petite plage (Yves Allégret, 1949) is a chillingly atmospheric noir set in a hellishly bleak, rain-sodden seaside town, while Le Corbeau (Henri Georges Clouzot, 1943) is a small-town story shot in forbidding, shadowy tones while France was at its lowest ebb under German occupation. Le Corbeau will be the subject of our ongoing Philosophical Screens series, exploring cinema through a philosophical lens. Film academics Lucy Bolton, William Brown and Catherine Wheatley will examine French film noir, with a special focus on the relationship between ethics, history and place in Le Corbeau. Made with German money during the occupation, the film was condemned as a cinematic betrayal of the French – yet its denial of moral certainty invokes a very French philosophical tradition: existentialism.

Largely shot on location in the sultry south of France Le Dernier tournant (Pierre Chenal, 1939) is French noir-meets-hard-boiled US crime fiction, and is the first screen adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M Cain’s famous tale of passion, murder and guilt. Henri George Clouzot’s Quai des Orfèvres (1948) is a detective thriller set amid the seedy music halls of Paris and melds classic noir stylings with character-driven realism and a surprisingly comic edge. The season will be completed by screenings of the definitive heist noir Rififi (Jules Dassin, 1955) and Le Doulos (Jean- Pierre Melville, 1962); film noir is refined to its essentials in Melville’s brilliantly stylised film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Serge Reggiani.

The Ciné Lumière will run a complementary programme from 26 Oct – 4 Dec. Cultural Partners:

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EVENTS, PREVIEWS AND REGULAR STRANDS  SAT 22 OCT, 13:30 – BAFTA AND BFI SCREENWRITERS LECTURE SERIES: Park Chan-wook – the writer/director of the Vengeance Trilogy, Thirst and The Handmaiden onstage at BFI Southbank  SAT 5 NOV, 13:00 – PREVIEW: Doctor Who – The Power of the Daleks (animated) (1966/2016) / Onstage: actors Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines  SAT 12 NOV, 18:00 & 20:40 – FILM PREVIEW: JIM JARMUSCH DOUBLE BILL Paterson (2016) and Gimme Danger (2016)  MON 28 NOV, 20:30 – FILM PREVIEW: Bleed for This (Ben Younger, 2016)  TUE 18 OCT, 18:10 – TV PREVIEW: Television’s Opening Night: How the Box was Born (BBC- Windfall Films, 2016) / Onstage: presenter Dallas Campbell, Dr Hugh Hunt, Prof Danielle George  MON 17 OCT, 18:30 / MON 21 NOV, 18:30 – SPECIAL EVENT: Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI / Onstage: broadcaster and critic Mark Kermode  SAT 29 OCT, 18:00 – SPECIAL EVENT: Science Fiction Double Feature Picture Show: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) + Shock Treatment (Jim Sharman, 1981) / Onstage: Cast and crew TBC  SAT 29 OCT, 13:00-18:00 – SPECIAL EVENT: The BFI Denton Convention / Onstage: Cast and crew of Shock Treatment  MON 14 NOV, 18:10 – TALK: The Restoration of Napoleon / Onstage: Film historian Kevin Brownlow, film restorer and historian Patrick Stanbury  MON 31 OCT, 9:30-16:30: FILM AFRICA 2016 INDUSTRY FORUM: Archiving Africa  WED 2 NOV, 18:30: FILM AFRICA 2016 INDUSTRY FORUM UK PREMIERE: Mali Blues (2016)  WED 2 NOV, 20:30: LMFC 50: Cinema of the Body  SUN 20 NOV, 11:00 – FUNDAY SCREENING: Moana (Ron Clements, John Musker, 2016) / Onstage: directors Ron Clements and John Musker  SAT 22 OCT, 12:30 – BFI FUTURE FILM PRESENTS: Horror  MON 31 OCT, 18:30 – AUDIENCE CHOICE on the theme of HALLOWEEN

NEW RELEASES  OPENS FRIDAY 21 OCT: I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016)  OPENS FRIDAY 25 NOV: Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)

RE-RELEASES  OPENS FRI 28 OCT: Boyz n the Hood (John Singleton, 1991) – part of BLACK STAR  OPENS FRI 11 NOV: Napoleon (Abel Gance, 1927)  OPENS FRI 18 NOV: In the Heat of the Night (Norman Jewison, 1967) – part of BLACK STAR

BIG SCREEN CLASSICS: THE TIMELESS FILMS WE URGE YOU TO SEE During late October and throughout November Big Screen Classics series will feature films which are all notable for their use of movement. One of these films in the series will be screened on a daily basis for the special price of £8:  Electric Edwardians: the Films of Mitchell and Kenyan (Sagar Mitchell, James Kenyon, 1900-06)  The Adventures of Robin Hood (Michael Curtiz, 1938)  Battleship Potemkin Bronenosets Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)  The Pirate (Vincente Minnelli, 1948)  Woman of the Dunes Suna no onna (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964)  Knife in the Water Nóz w wodzie (Roman Polanski, 1962)  Cleo From 5 to 7 Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)  Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933)  Gun Crazy (Joseph H Lewis, 1949)

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 Shadows (John Cassavetes, 1958)  A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)  The Big City Mahanagar (, 1963)  Gregory’s Girl (Bill Forsyth, 1980)  Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1966)  Ordet The Word (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1954)  Five (Dedicated to Ozu) (Abbas Kiarostami, 2003)

PLEASE SEE ONLINE FOR FULL EVENTS LISTINGS FOR LATE OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-bfi-soutbank-events-listing-october- november-2016-09-16.pdf

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

Press Contacts:

Liz Parkinson – Press Officer, BFI Southbank [email protected] / 020 7957 8918

Elizabeth Dunk – Press Office Assistant [email protected] / 020 7985 8986

About the BFI The BFI is the lead body for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive by:  Connecting audiences to the widest choice of British and World cinema  Preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations  Championing emerging and world class film makers in the UK - investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work  Promoting British film and talent to the world  Growing the next generation of film makers and audiences The BFI is a Government arm’s-length body and distributor of Lottery funds for film. The BFI serves a public role which covers the cultural, creative and economic aspects of film in the UK. It delivers this role:  As the UK-wide organisation for film, a charity core funded by Government  By providing Lottery and Government funds for film across the UK  By working with partners to advance the position of film in the UK.

Founded in 1933, the BFI is a registered charity governed by Royal Charter.

The BFI Board of Governors is chaired by Josh Berger CBE.

The BFI Southbank is open to all. BFI members are entitled to a discount on all tickets. BFI Southbank Box Office tel: 020 7928 3232. Unless otherwise stated tickets are £11.00, concs £8.50 Members pay £1.50 less on any ticket - www.bfi.org.uk/southbank. Young people aged 25 and under can buy last minute tickets for just £3, 45 minutes before the start of screenings and events, subject to availability - http://www.bfi.org.uk/25-and-under. Tickets for FREE screenings and events must be booked in advance by calling the Box Office to avoid disappointment

BFI Shop The BFI Shop is stocked and staffed by BFI experts with over 1,200 book titles and 1,000 DVDs to choose from, including hundreds of acclaimed books and DVDs produced by the BFI.

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The benugo bar & kitchen Eat, drink and be merry in panoramic daylight. benugo’s décor is contemporary, brightly lit and playful with a lounge space, bar and dining area. The place to network, hang out, unpack a film, savour the best of Modern British or sip on a cocktail. There’s more to discover about film and television through the BFI. Our world-renowned archival collections, cinemas, festivals, films, publications and learning resources are here to inspire you.

*** PICTURE DESK *** A selection of images for journalistic use in promoting BFI Southbank screenings can be found at www.image.net under BFI / BFI Southbank / Southbank 2016 / October - November

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